The updated report also says the victim was wearing a t-shirt for “Help for Heroes”, an organization providing support for wounded veterans.

Jihad by machete seems to have migrated from Stockholm to London. This incident is still breaking news, but here is the story as it has unfolded so far in Woolwich, a southeastern suburb of London.

After a car crash, a serving soldier was set upon by two “youths”, who pulled him from his vehicle, hacked him to death with machetes, beheaded him, and dragged his body into the middle of the road. When the police arrived, the two men rushed the officers brandishing their weapons, which included a gun. At least one of the police was armed, and shot the two men, who are now in the hospital being treated.

The fact that the victim was beheaded was obviously something that the authorities wished to hush up, but witnesses at the scene immediately got on Twitter and reported the grisly details of what happened.

Two men ‘shot by armed police after hacking soldier in Help for Heroes T-shirt to death with machetes in busy London street’

Two people were today believed to have been shot by armed police after hacking a man to death with a machete in front of dozens of eyewitnesses.

Police were called this afternoon to reports of an assault in Woolwich, south London where witnesses claimed a man wearing a Help For Heroes t-shirt was attacked with knives.

The pair were then confronted by armed police and apparently shot by a female officer as they brandished weapons including a revolver.

This afternoon the area’s MP, Nick Raynsford, told BBC Radio 5 Live he believed the victim of the attack was a serving soldier.

Theresa May tonight called a meeting of the government’s emergency cabinet committee Cobra, showing that authorities were treating the incident as a possible terror attack.

The man is believed to have been hacked to death after a car crash. The scene of the attack is just 200 yards from Woolwich Barracks.

Mr Raynsford told the BBC: Mr Raynsford said: ‘The circumstances causing the incident are not yet clear. It’s been suggested it was the product of a road traffic accident, but that’s pure speculation.

‘We think a serving soldier was the victim. We don’t know the circumstances surrounding the incident.

‘We do know a number of weapons have been seized. They include a gun, various knives, and a machete, apparently.

‘The police clearly had to take action in order to try and arrest these individuals.’

The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is called in whenever firearms officers shoot people, said it is investigating.

The Ministry of Defence said it was urgently looking at the reports that the incident involved a soldier but had no further comment.

Footage from a television news helicopter showed a large collection of weapons lying in the street in Woolwich following the incident.

A spokesman for the London Ambulance Service said one man had died at the scene.

He said: ‘Our staff treated two others. Both men were taken to hospital, one of them is in a serious condition, the other is not.’

One witness, identified as James, said he and his partner saw two black men attack the young victim with knives, including a meat cleaver.

‘They were hacking at this poor guy, literally,’ he told LBC. ‘They were hacking at him, chopping him, cutting him.’

Fighting back tears, James said the men treated their victim as a ‘piece of meat’ after he was dead.

‘These two guys were crazed,’ he told the radio station. ‘They were just animals. They dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road and left his body there.’

The incident occurred near the Royal Artillery Barracks, adjacent to Woolwich Common, the historical home of the Royal Artillery.

[…]

Luke Huseyin, 32, who lives in a block of flats on John Wilson Street, Woolwich, close to where the incident happened said he watched two men murder a man before being shot.

He said: ‘I was at home and heard a big bang. I looked out of the window and saw a car had crashed.

‘It was a blue Vauxhall. Then two black guys got out of the car dragging a white guy across the road towards the wall. One of the guys had a knife that looked about a foot long and a machete and the other bloke had a gun.

‘They started slashing him up with the knife and hitting him in the stomach with the machete. I don’t think it took long before he was dead. There were people passing by who were screaming and running away. I’ve never seen anything like it.

‘I’m still really shaken up. When he was dead, they dragged him out into the road and left him there.

‘It was strange, they didn’t run off, they just stood there as if they were waiting for the police.

‘It must’ve taken about 20 minutes for the police to arrive, I think it must’ve been because they were waiting for armed police.

‘The police officers got out of the car and the two black men ran towards them with the gun.

‘The police shot them. They fell to the ground. Then a helicopter landed. Think it must’ve been an air ambulance.

‘The paramedics got out and I think they were working on the two men to try and keep them alive.

‘I don’t know if they died, they were taken away in the helicopter. A blanket was put over the white guy lying in the road. ‘I just can’t believe what I saw.’